Whispers of the Outer
by Reva Kenai
Summary: Taylor Hebert was an ordinary girl whose resolve was tempered through abuse and betrayal, wishing to become capable of defending people against these and much more: a Hero s mettle which would face alien eyes and a sad smile.
1. Chapter 1

**Whispers of the Outer**

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**Disclaimer:** I don´t own the awesome web serial Worm by Wildbow; though there are a few OC in this fic, all of which are my own creation. Also this is entirely a work of fiction; any real person names, companies, events or places mentioned in this story are just coincidences and not meant to offend or make any kind of realistic description.

Additionally; this contains spoilers from the web serial Worm, although this story diverges from canon very early.

Here´s a new awaited fanfiction, while Outer Maelstrom takes a recharging break; here hoping you guys dig it!

- " Speaking aloud and normally"-

- _memories _-

- ' _Thoughts _'-

- " _**Very deep and incorporeal voice**_ "-

* * *

**Chapter 1: Contact**

* * *

(We are (Not) alone – You (Won´t) notice it – I´ll (Try to) accept the consequences ˃

* * *

April 14, 2005

_'Shattering window which will show me these new planes, new worlds. Reasons outside past sight ensures the coming reign'_- Ever unblinking eyes were fixed upon the chaos unleashed against the veritable floating fortress below; which despite being shot at by countless multicolored beams couldn´t be brought down and sunk into the Atlantic Ocean.

The angelic being hovered at thousands of feet above into the sky; its translucent and bright body seemingly lifted off by majestic asymmetrical wings surrounded by a halo of diverse high-tech looking guns which were currently firing nonstop. Its outlandish mind allowing it to analyze the shimmering shields halting its assault while continuing to sing its unheard melody of damnation at the same time

_ 'The rupture is imminent. Enabler´s path has been set and locked_'

Suddenly a vaguely dragon-shaped aircraft could be seen on the horizon, breaking the sound barrier and quickly approaching the stronghold at an angle. This was coordinated together with the retreat of the entirety of the Triumvirate, who was previously attacking the dread-inducing being named Simurgh after the mythical bird said to possess the knowledge of the ages.

Its face revealed nothing while slightly turning to look at the remote-controlled suit of the parahuman who would unknowingly allow it/her so many paths to reach the fated goal.

A tinker-made black rocket was fired with a roar from the aircraft, followed by a veritable rain of more normal looking missiles against the Endbringer; whose wings had already started to shift, almost like a blooming iridescent rose, revealing a previously hidden disk-shaped device strapped to its/her back.

Unheard and almost breathless gasps escaped the lips of those who were able to look at the scene thanks to Dragon´s cameras.

Would their efforts finally be rewarded with the fall of the angel-like monster whom had led so many people towards madness and despair?.

The massive and deafening implosion which shook the entire fortress after the first missile hit and the results would go a long way towards the further demoralization of the people of the world; because it was just proved that the Endbringers were capable of unforeseen levels of preparation and foresight.

* * *

April 17, 2005

Just three days ago, the joint Protectorate Headquarters located a short distance from one of the islands furthest to the north-west in Las Bahamas had suffered a devastating Endbringer attack, which incidentally had been immediately followed with the scarring of the heavens in a number of places across the globe, the so called Earth-Bet.

Legend stood on a beach overlooking the half-destroyed tinker-made fortress on the sea, the mantle of his electric-blue costume flowing with the wind. Behind him there were remains of preserved huts made by the Lucayos, the original natives who had lived on these islands a long time ago.

_'That strange and dark void that appeared when Dragon´s new weapon hit the Simurgh shouldn´t have happened. Not only did her trinket protect her but also almost ended up destroying this base. It´s going to take at least a year to repair it_'

Looking to his side, he noticed his old-friend Eidolon standing silently and looking at the moonlit sky -_'probably also brooding about the results of this. Dragon´s weapon was supposed to leave the Simurgh unable to gather sunlight and radiation anymore, and without any means of recovery her destruction would have been guaranteed_'.

Placing a hand over the shoulder of his teammate in the Triumvirate to distract him from his reverie, Legend met his stare with a somewhat reassuring half-smile and spoke –"Despite what happened, it´s going to get better you know?. We were so close to finally destroying an _Endbringer _that she specifically had to design a counter. In spite of all projections _it can be done_ Eidolon".

After a brief moment of silence, Eidolon gave a slight nod and answered –"You´re right, thanks. We do have measures to ensure we can recover this base". He gestured towards the remains of the construction -" also we had very few losses this time, and ..". His fists clenched while his gaze returned to the sky -"if anything this suggests they have vulnerabilities we could use to defeat them".

_'Even if it turns out I´m the only one who can do it'._

The sound of the waves crashing against the rocks far away to their left subtly started to remind them of the rising tide that would come soon, but Legend ignored this and joined Eidolon at watching the sky while letting the now companionable silence stretch.

Both of them were avoiding speaking or thinking too much about what the Simurgh had brought upon them all, even though they were currently gazing upon an ethereal sight that was sure to puzzle and worry plenty of people for a long time to come.

It was Legend who again broke the silence with a barely audible sigh –" well, as the British say .. the battle rages on".

This elicited a snort from Eidolon –"Earth´s Aleph´s Deep Purple´s album? Really?".

Both Heroes stood there below a sky unnaturally marred by a massive and almost elliptical dark blur filled with countless streams of jade-green and dark-blue flames dancing with wave-like and counter-clockwise motions, all the while barely reaching outside the void and into their world.

* * *

July 27, 2006

Samantha Barnes was a stern-looking woman whom had to accompany her husband from Brockton Bay to Boston for a firm-related meeting that would take place in two days' time. It was just fortunate that her sister had been available to take care of their precious daughter back at the Bay; she would have to make sure that Emma kept to her schedule and did her homework, no matter how much she complained about being tired from her modelling classes.

Currently, she and Mr. Barnes were staying at a nice but not too expensive hotel; and she had gone out to do some shopping at the nearest mall while her husband had remained at their room, quite busy with work-related calls.

_'It seems that I spent too much time back there, it´s already 5:00 p.m'-_ She thought, glad she had decided to wear her coat and long skirt to help her deal with the cold and chilling winds that were so common on this city.

Walking about while carrying two shopping bags in each hand was a little uncomfortable; however she considered she had been lucky that there were still a few other people walking on the streets going about their business. Though, it only took a matter of minutes for this to start to change as the streets became more deserted. A little worried, she decided to hurry the pace.

The street that she found herself walking after a while was near one of the seedier-looking houses that she had seen in the area; and so she decided to turn around and look for a better way to return to the hotel, only to suddenly stop when she felt a very sharp object pressing against her lower back.

"Walk"- the gruff voice that loudly whispered behind her almost resembled a growl.

_'Oh no! Am I being mugged? Someone, anybody PLEASE HELP ME!'- _a cold sweat started to form on her forehead, and the shiver caused by the sudden situation had almost fully paralyzed her on the spot.

"Didn´t you hear? Walk! Now!"- the thug wearing a ratty and hooded cloak coldly repeated behind her, before starting to lead her to a near side-alley.

_'Just what does he want?! Somebody! Anybody! Please .. '-_ feeling utterly helpless she could only keep walking together with the man who was discreetly pressing the military knife against her back, while her eyes desperately looked for anyone nearby who could see what was happening.

Reaching the very poorly lit alley, she was taken further enough to make it very difficult for any passerby to notice them and was cornered against a large dumpster and a wall.

"Quick! Off with the wallet! I don´t care about the bags –"- the hurried whisper from the thief was abruptly interrupted by a terrifyingly loud growl which reverberated in the passageway, and had the both of them disturbed by the apparent proximity of whatever had caused it.

Samantha saw the man compose himself first and hurriedly turn his head back and forth looking for the cause; meanwhile, she decided to remain as immobile as possible for now. Though, she still jumped a little when barking sounds followed -_'That must be a really big dog'._ The thug now alternated between looking at the entrance of the alley and the darkness deeper into the passage, not knowing where to retreat to –"Dammit all! Down boy! I said down".

The barks continued and started to turn almost deafening in volume. She decided to just turn her panicked eyes to the wall in front of her -_'Oh God, if he loses his nerve too much with whatever that is, he could -'. _A sudden clanking sound coming from the opposite wall towards the darkness had her holding her breath and peeking out of the corner of her eyes in that direction, while the cloaked man hastily and reflexively also pointed the knife that way.

Everything happened so fast that it was almost like a blur to her.

With a cracking noise, the hand with the knife was viciously crushed with what appeared to be a brick which seemingly came from nowhere; followed by a child-sized shadow dropping down directly from above her and drop kicking the man on the head before interposing between them.

"AARGH!"- The man who had previously been trying to mug her was now cowering and desperately trying to protect the heavily bleeding side of his head against the raging and poorly-dressed child whom kept viciously punching and kicking him while snarling words she couldn´t understand with a rasping voice.

The exchange was brutal and swift; ending when the thief collided against the opposite wall and muttered a "Damn you brat .." before promptly collapsing and passing out, a small pool of blood forming beneath him.

A short while passed before her shivers stopped and she dared to fully turn around to see her would be savior, only to let out a soft gasp at the sight before her.

The first thing that drew her attention about the child crouching and slowly moving towards her, besides that he seemed to be around ten years old and only wore a ragged brown shorts, was his piercing eyes. Golden/yellow irises making them look like a big feline´s, and partially obscured by the bangs of his dark and wild-looking hair, which almost reached his shoulders.

_'Is this a parahuman? Some sort of Brute and Mover? I´ve never heard anything similar to that language he had been speaking'- _She saw that his expression was slowly softening from the terrible rage he was showing before, a fury that somehow she could tell was not directed at her but encompassed far more than her would be assailant.

When he fully stopped before her, now with a concerned look to his face, she could notice some things that she had missed earlier. Like the considerable amount of dirt and grime on his lightly tanned skin, and the quite unusual dark gray marks, tribal-looking in design, running as a few lines across the skin of his arms, legs and back.

"Eihden ne/ _are you okay_?"- She started a little at the rasp in his voice, but again couldn´t understand what he was saying. So she just shook her head while pointing at her right ear, and then pointed in the direction of the original clanking sound she had heard.

The boy´s lips briefly showed a smirk, before he grabbed a piece of brick from the ground and easily threw it over his shoulder against that same wall further into the alley. When he saw the realization in her eyes the strange child then cleared his throat and gave a single bark, much more softly than the ones she had been hearing before but still easily mistaken from a dog´s. After that he even slightly cocked his head to the side and started to chirp like a few different sorts of birds with astounding accuracy for a very short time.

_'All of that was him! Unless he prepared beforehand, which I don´t think he did; this little kid was capable of easily using this sort of freaky mimicry and misdirection to lead that man by the nose so he could ambush him directly from above us! And neither of us noticed him .._ _'- _She saw him about to keep trying to talk before he closed his mouth, sighed, briefly looked back at her attacker and showed her a shallow and small cut above his own left knee. Pointed at it and then at her -_'are those short black claws on his fingers? On his toes too?!'_.

_'I definitely don´t think he speaks or understands English'- _Samantha decided to just wave her hands dismissively to show that she was now fine. He seemed to understand and just gave her a nod before going a little to the side and curiously starting to check one of the plastic bags that she had dropped to the ground, meanwhile she fully recovered her wits and started to walk around him and pick up her other bags.

Stopping before the kid, she extended a hand palm-up at the same time that a soft grumbling sound of hunger coming from his stomach interrupted both of them.

Despite of this, he recovered and turned to give her the last bag meanwhile with his other hand he lightly waved an apple at her which he had taken from it.

_'Asking for just this sort of payback for saving me ..'- _She distractedly nodded to let him know that he could have the fruit while her thoughts whirled about his apparent status as an abandoned foreign child and how she could lead him to the police station for help. He showed her a brief smile before standing up like a normal person and proceeding to quickly eat the apple with hasty bites, even the core and the stem, while walking back towards the unconscious thief.

Still mildly disturbed by everything she had just seen, she decided to walk to the entrance of the alley while putting out her cellphone in order to call the police.

She had just started to dial when she was surprised by a distressed noise behind her. She then turned around and saw the unusual kid desperately tending to the body of the fallen thug and screaming in stops and starts.

Shocked, she saw him press two of his fingers to the neck of the man and then turn panicked and pleading eyes to her while showing her a hand-sign with his index finger and thumb very close together. And so she hurriedly called the police and for an ambulance while attempting to calm down the child using hand gestures which weren´t being paid attention at all.

The minutes seemed to pass too slowly as she waited for the arriving help; and in the meantime she could only keep trying and failing to calm the foreign boy, who had carefully prodded the dying man until he had noticed that the main problem was the grievous head-injury; and then had just roared in despair with eyes briefly glowing with a fiery orange light! Before withdrawing with sporadic mutters to himself, both hands clutching at his hair.

_'He didn´t really seem in a good headspace earlier, and now with this .. is he losing it?'- _Samantha even tried to approach him, but he seemed to shy away from her and deeper into the dark alley; and so she stopped and was left with only the option of trying to reassure him, telling him that what had happened had been an accident, all with the hope that he might understand something of what she was saying.

After a while, something seemed to take, and the supposed-parahuman went to kneel besides the man with new resolve; and she decided to remain quiet while, to her further amazement, he hovered his hands very near to the wounded head before these started to softly glow with an ethereal green light.

Breaking up her staring, she decided to take a look outside the alleyway in the meantime to see if all the noise had been bringing more people to the area. She noticed that there were a few vagrants keeping a good distance, and even a scowling and retreating short-haired girl with two dogs; however she was glad to see that nobody wanted to get near, this would make it easier for the police to work here when they arrived.

Just when she was about to return to the alley she saw and heard the police cars and one ambulance quickly heading her way.

Ecstatic that everything was going to be over at last, she waved to get the attention of the policemen and pointed in the direction of the side street where they were needed.

She quickly explained the situation to the first officer to reach her while they walked, and the policeman signaled to the paramedics to get ready.

The group of Samantha and two policemen were surprised to only find the dying thug in the alley but no signs of the strange kid; until a paramedic who was just arriving shouted and pointed upwards.

They turned just in time to see a small shadow quickly crawling up the wall and disappearing when it reached the rooftop.

The next moments passed almost in a daze for Ms. Barnes, as policemen coordinated a search together through their radios and paramedics questioned her and carried the injured man to the ambulance.

Later, as she sat inside of a police car that would take her to the hotel, she couldn´t help but wonder if that little kid would be found so he could receive the help he so obviously needed.

He would be found in short order; just not on that day and it wouldn´t really lead to him being helped.

The paramedics and the staff at the hospital would be puzzled by the ashen-gray tissue stitching and closing the wound at the right side of the face of the mugger, but it didn´t really do anything about the infection, the fractures on the temporal and parietal bones of the skull, nor the critical brain damage which had taken place.

The man died by the sunrise of the next day.

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A/N: Foreshadowing and implications!. Just in case, this will not be a fanfiction about an original alien/slider? invasion; there will be only as much as two of these plus the Outer, a kind of mastermind, as far as otherworldly OC´s go. I can say in advance that i´m planning in making a large contrast between the two _'_unknowns_'_, one which will mainly add to the depth of the plot and story and the other more to lighten it up and comic relief. I would deeply appreciate your comments about this experiment. Until the next time.


	2. Chapter 2

**Whispers of the Outer**

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**Disclaimer:** I don´t own the characters/setting/ideas from the web serial Worm by Wildbow; though there are a few OC in this fic, all of which are of my own creation.

Here´s the second chapter; any comments or opinions would be appreciated!

* * *

- " Speaking aloud and normally"-

- _Memories / dreaming / reading written or typed text _-

- ' _Thoughts _'-

- " _**Very deep and incorporeal voice**_ "-

* * *

**Chapter 2: First Impressions**

(Everyone has their reasons – Staring into the Void – A journey of a thousand miles.. ˃

* * *

January 01, 2011

_Standing at the middle of the familiar and small park near her house she could see how all around her was being blanketed in pure white as the snow fell, delicate snowflakes slowly drifting down. Bringing up her gloved hands, she breathed against them and steam became visible due to the chilling weather._

_This scenario had been lived by the girl; back in November, when she had gone one afternoon to wander alone to the park and drink hot chocolate, something she so rarely did._

_'Something is odd though. I remember there being at least some people, there´s nobody here'- a gust of wind blew and her purple scarf and the flaps of her thick brown coat moved in response._

_Walking over the frost she started to notice a very soft and distant humming sound; and while her feet were taking her in its direction, she realized that it was a beautiful melody sang by a feminine but strong voice._

_Drawn by the serene presence that seemed all-encompassing in that place, it wasn´t long before she reached the place from where the song came from._

_There she found a very gnarled and tall tree, its thick trunk composed by two lesser branches tightly entwined, and a small patch of tall grass with a frozen flower at the center before her._

_After taking a few moments to contemplate them; she took some steps back, stretched her arms to her sides and started turning in a slow twirl, and at that the melody was filled with renewed cheer and a flow of falling snowflakes started to spin around and together with her._

_'This must be the coolest dream I´ve had in a long while'- feeling quite unusually carefree she smiled and closed her eyes, all the while continuing to spin in time with the snowflakes; and feeling how the cheer in the wordless song slowly increased. It was just the girl and the singer, both encouraging and bringing joy to each other._

_Unaware of the passing of time nor fully aware yet of a curious fact, the dance continued for a while._

_This fact is that the moment you realize you´re dreaming, ordinarily is also when you start waking up; something which still wasn´t happening to the girl so far._

_Little by little the tunes began to die down, and she accordingly started to come to a stop._

_"That was just plain awesome"- opening her eyes, she whispered the words and these are followed with a low cracking sound and a jingle._

_Turning, she saw that the flower had thawed amidst the patch of frozen grass; revealing a single white tulip, not that she remembered ever seen one before._

_'Pretty ..'- The thin girl walked to stand in front of it, and contemplated plucking it out but decides against it._

**_"This had been more than just a dream. A song about my hopes placed upon a promise of rebirth and communion with the *abyss*"-_**_ She was startled at the gentle voice that seemed to come from somewhere in front of her. Only because she noticed that it was the same voice that had just been singing stopped her from running away._

**_"Thank you so much for listening to it. I hope you might do so again. Time to wake up"- _**_The leafless tree in front of her seemed to quiver for a moment, and then very slowly started to uncoil with creaking sounds._

_"Wait ! just what – whom!?"- Surprised; the girl quickly started to regain her awareness and to become lucid as she started to wake up and everything around her gradually faded into nothingness. _

_"Who are – How should i name you!?"- She finally and hurriedly said with a louder voice, as all of her surroundings faded._

**_"Shion"- _**_the soft word is the last thing she heard there._

* * *

Groggily rubbing at her eyes, Taylor Hebert awakes to the morning light seeping through the curtains in her room, feeling well-rested but somewhat lazy.

_'Surreal'- _still clearly remembering her last and nonsensical *dream*, she wasn´t really sure what to make of it. Everything had been so clear and felt far too *real* to be a dream; but looking back on it, much of it hadn´t made sense.

Distracted, her dark-brown eyes turned to the alarm clock. It showed her that she had around thirty minutes before her father´s usual time of waking; and so it was time for her to get up and begin preparing herself to go to school. She grimaced a bit at that, but gathered herself and began making up her bed before going to the bathroom.

After taking a quick shower, she takes a little while in front of the mirror as she combs her dark curly hair and lets out a sigh -_'it would be better for me to just forget about it; I will take it as a weird dream for now and if i´m wrong .. '_; unbidden, thoughts about her having fallen victim to some kind of parahuman who could mess with people while they were dreaming came to mind, but she dismissed them due to being too early for that kind of paranoia.

Dressing up and going down the stairs she made her way to the kitchen, and started making both her and her father´s breakfast.

Her father shows up after a little while, while she had been reflecting about the distance that had sprung between them after her mother´s death and how it had affected both of them.

"Good morning Dad"- she turns for a moment and smiles a little at him, a new effort to try to bring them closer. "The pancakes are almost ready"

"Good morning kiddo"- Danny Hebert looks a little surprised at seeing his daughter smiling like that, since it had been a while since the last time she did this, and couldn´t help but smile back at her. "You are in a good mood".

She nods a tad absentmindedly while taking the breakfasts from the pans and serving them onto plates –"I just slept very well. It had been a little difficult lately because of the cold weather".

Taylor and her father started to eat while they talked a bit more about Danny´s job at the Dockworker´s Union.

This lasted until they had to go their separate ways, and she grabbed her bag before going to school.

* * *

"- and now following with Dr. Dawson, internationally known physicist; he´ll give us a review of the findings made so far into the so called *Sky breaches* present at least a thousand feet into the airspace in a considerable expanse centered on Las Bahamas islands, and appearing at the end of the Simurgh´s attack back in 2005"- The female correspondent on the screen wore a formal suit while standing together with an older man, around his fifties, at the front of the gates of Boston University.

"Thank you Ms. Dillon. To begin with is important to say that the practical research into this subject is extremely dangerous and very controversial, especially since the theory needed to properly understand these breaches is currently rather underdeveloped. Quite frankly the most precedent we have to try and understand these, are the half-completed works of a deceased parahuman: the Tinker known as Haywire"- the man besides her spoke with a very clear and measured voice.

"That said, these *Sky breaches* behave as sorts of always-active and elliptic portals which all lead to the same unexplored void-like space. There are exactly one thousand seven hundred forty two of these breaches; more concentrated near the biggest one above the Protectorate HQ near Las Bahamas, of nearly a mile of length, and becoming scarcer in number the farther from there you go. Currently, each of them are on a strict 24/7 monitoring".

"But what about the ethereal and fiery streams that are easily seen inside them? And what are the reasons for no exploring the space which can be reached through them?"- the reporter asks the questions she is convinced are more pressing.

Dr. Dawson gravelly nods before answering –"Before the surveillance and security systems were properly set up, there were a number of incidents where people managed to come into contact with these jade and blue *streams* and even a number of cases of people using means like powers, air balloons or dirigibles to (very recklessly if not outright stupidly may I add) enter said breaches or portals".

"For the first cases; these *streams* are seemingly composed of light and some unknown form of radiation; and when a person is exposed to them there´s no evidence of any kind of damage, though it does have the curious effect of dulling physical pain and giving off a sensation of warmth. However, due to the claims from the people who touched these light constructs that they tried this because they felt drawn to it, all of them were sent to psychiatric evaluations and subjected to careful observation".

A sigh escapes from his lips –"As for the strange void behind the portals, its study is extremely difficult because of the contradictory data we have observed from there and the fact that any device sent through is eventually damaged beyond recovery. Still, we know that there´s a constant and normal movement of air though the breaches and this world; and also we have managed to measure wildly changing levels of radiation and obtain images like the one on this picture ..". He pauses and shows a photo containing a dense gray fog starting a distance from the entrance to the pitch black vastness –"Also we have to take into account that the risks involved in granting access through these breaches were deemed too great by our government, and because of the restrictions set in place we cannot send through any kind of living being .. which is a shame, because without that we have no way to prove if the declarations made by the people who had entered so far were true or not".

The reporter could barely restrain her own interest –"You mean to say that those people who went in could return to tell the tale".

The aged researcher nods –"The most one of them lasted in that void were a couple of hours, and then exited through the same breach they used; they were babbling incredible things and ended up being sent to psychiatric care and observation too. They became known as the cases *OD* -. *_click_*.

The screen of the small television faded to black with a click from the remote in the hand of the tall for his age boy with the piercing eyes and almost ever-present scowl, whom had been sitting cross-legged on the floor besides the only couch on the living room.

"Move your ass Freak, you are going to be late for school"- an obese man wearing only boxers and sitting on the sofa with a beer in hand says while nudging the tan-skinned boy with his left foot, who was wearing worn jeans and a black t-shirt with the sleeves torn off.

Letting out a soft growl to make the adult stop, he removes a lock of his wild-looking and jet-black hair of his face while seemingly staring at the ceiling –"Call me John, Yagan or just kid. When are you and Martha going to stop calling me that? Maybe ..".

_'I´m still not used to threaten, but I shouldn´t just punch the jerk and tell him to knock it off with the unnecessary reminder of my inadequacies here. Time to pretend then; he´ll believe only what he has already noticed'_

The boy stood up and something between a sneer and a smirk showed on his face as he locked eyes with the fat man who was one of his caretakers–"While i´m at school, hide your beer .. again".

"Fuck you brat!"- the underdressed adult almost shouts. "You pull the thing with the water or any other of your funny stuff and I'll convince Davidson to cancel your deal, we´ll move you from here at Brockton Bay so fast it´ll make you hurl"- He attempts to kick or trip the scowling kid, but he avoids it with a simple step back.

Turning his back on the adult and walking to his room in order to put on shoes and go to his first day of class at a new school, he commented without breaking stride or showing his face –"Bringing the heavy guns so easily … Forget it then".

_'Dammit to the abyss!. So handily outmaneuvered, again!. These contradictory psychos are not going to stop doing stuff like this to me'- _Briefly clenching his fists, he takes a deep breath inside his small and spartan room.

It took him a while to use his meditation technique to regain a semblance of composure, to going back to conceal his ever-present heartache while his mental mantra ran in fast-forward as it usually did -_'I must not keep thinking like this. This is normal for them. To care only for what/whom belongs to them.. and then not a moment later. I must discipline myself more. Respect their ways. I made the choice.. I cannot allow myself to truly hate *them*, or I will not be able to pursue my plan here'._

After finishing to dress himself, he looks at the items gathered upon the gray thin blanket on his bed: some books, a really thick notebook, a small case filled with pencils and erasers, a slightly battered thesaurus (which he cared for as another would a holy bible), and a worn sport bag filled with the progress on his future costume or mere disguise depending on how you looked at it.

Taking the bag, and putting the other things inside of it as well, he walked outside the foster house he lived in.

_'Thinking back on it, maybe I should be grateful to these people, and those back in Boston. The *Venture Family Services* was it called? I can´t remember a single time they took a blood sample from me.. Now that would have broken past their willful obliviousness of what I never believed myself able to hide. Although.. Maybe they just decided i´m a *Parahuman* or it wasn´t worth the hassle and neither the money; I might never know, but surely someone must have suspected the truth'._

Walking on the street of the Dock´s area for a while, he eventually reached a small shopping mall near the Boardwalk. This was the touristic area of the city, and from there he could keep going straight ahead for the most part for a few blocks until the school.

For the past month Yagan had been exploring the coastal city he now found himself in; and despite having plenty of seedy areas and rampant crime, he had already taken quite a liking to a pretty big area of the Docks, with its access to the beach and the ocean; relatively isolated and smalls parks, and also the many shops and stores where one could get all kinds of needed goods and sometimes even get some odd jobs from. He had already earned a little expending cash in order to visit a few of his current favorite places, like a coffee shop with a funny logo which sold cheap but good coffee, and some streets where one could usually find vendors selling hot dogs and slices of pizza.

_'Thinking they believe you´re a Parahuman, same happens with me – or possibly a *drama queen*- because without expressing deeper feelings they won´t notice your inner reality– You know I´ll tell them the truth about our kind real soon – I can´t wait to finally arrive there – Yesterday i learned what *virgin* means when i mispronounced the state i´m currently in – Annoyed that people still think i´m *cosplaying* - Your brooding quota for the day is filled, let it leak' ˃˃ - _In just under a second, foreign impressions of emotions and meanings without actual words crossed his mind like a stream. He could almost hear the feminine and chipper voice of the one broadcasting them, even though he had never seen her face to face.

His scowl is briefly replaced by a small smile and a chuckle, before the boy starts jogging while keeping his eyes closed.

_'Thanks, you´re right. It has been a long time since you last contacted me. We´ll have to continue to agree to disagree on how to go about our main goal. With no more moving around, I can finally begin working towards it by tomorrow. Now, i´m going to see how much training I can pull off' ˃˃ - _one step after the other, even with a pace which was nearly a full-on sprint his footing never faltered.

_'To see how I can increase my range of awareness even more. Trying to filter out my own heartbeat'- _He weaved around a couple, whom looked oddly for a moment at the fifteen-year old speeding past them with closed eyelids.

_'To improve my stamina on a flat ground like this one. Focus on the strength thrumming within, Our-Mother´s'- _changing to a full-on run, he crossed a street just as the traffic light turned red.

_'To multitask'- _running while leaning forwards and lowering his mass center; he suddenly took a leap towards a light pole, put one of his feet and weight against it and then pushed himself from there to the nearest advertisement-filled wall, where he wall-ran for a bit before dropping down and continuing past a bus stop and towards the public high school up ahead.

Winslow High was one of the schools with more capacity of Brockton Bay; with an enormous fenced main gate, poorly kept vegetation behind rails, and a long corridor before the actual building. However, like most schools in town, it had the problems of having overworked staff that couldn´t pay enough attention to any one student. And as a result of this, those who were members of one of the gangs in town could get away with some things, like petty theft and vandalism as long as they weren´t blatant about it.

Slowing down to a walk, the mysterious kid entered and it only took a short while before he noticed he had caught the eye of some gang-members of the Empire-88.

_'No transformed claws? Check. None of my *markings* visible? Check. As I thought, just another lot behaving like shallow punks'- _after discreetly re-checking himself he stood before an older student with a swastika tattooed on the back of his hand whom was now blocking his path.

"If you need my help for something it will cost you your prejudice.. Kidding "- the smaller boy could see how the other´s muscles were subtly preparing to use force on him from the get go while he deadpanned his greeting.

"We don´t want your kind here, you´ll have to pay the *special tax* if you want to pass"- the gruff voice was slightly unnerved by something he couldn´t quite place, but it was still filled with derision for the *impure brown*.

The one with the yellow irises stands still for a moment with his head slightly cocked to one side, before smirking and answering.

"Meaning.. you want me to pay by proving my *Kind* to you?"- he walked to stand a couple meters from the gangbanger, the two facing side to side; before he lifted the hand not holding his bag in a vague come-hither motion.

"Stop fucking around!"- While the other gangbangers went to surround and screen the both of them, the older brawler followed what his instincts were screaming at him without much thought and pulled out a folding knife; before lashing out with his other hand to try and restrain the *thing* in front of him.

_'Huh'¨- _Quick like a viper, the free-hand of the tanned kid had used two fingers to poke the underside of his forearm with such force and steadiness that his attempt was halted.

"Motherfucker!"- A painful feeling of pin and needles quickly spreading on his entire arm, he lunged with the knife on his other arm; while the boy in front of him raised the same hand a distance and a little above chest level, fingers still grouped as if there were only three of them (index and middle fingers together, the same with the ring and pinkie fingers, and the thumb remaining free).

Feinting for a moment, the thuggish gangbanger then got closer and tried to stab lower; but was abruptly interrupted when he found the other´s hand over and catching his own. He only got a chance to regain his stance a little before both of their hands shook in a sudden blur, a low snapping sound was heard and everything exploded in pain.

"AAARGH-"- his scream was cut short when a swift kick to the shin dropped him to kneeling on the ground. Distantly and even among the stars he was seeing behind his eyelids, he could hear the concerned sounds around him and the clanging sound of his knife hitting the ground.

"That was the second *draft* of my nerve-biter technique"- At hearing the voice of his foe he looked up, and desperately tried to recover his hand from the other´s grasp. He was allowed to.

The boy registered as John kneeled a short distance from him and loudly snarled like some kind of animal?! Before speaking in a very low voice -"Tell them to stop cornering me and forcing my hand".

The gangbanger then realized that the rest of his group was circling around and towards them, some with pocket knives drawn, and he yelled at them to stop.

Fixing his leer onto the expectant? face of his strange foe, he couldn´t help but seethe in anger at this *impure* aberration whom had beaten him on three moves.

It wasn´t any surprise that when the smaller boy closed his eyelids for a short time the gangbanger took the chance and gathered his strength on his still twitching other arm, recovered his knife, and slashed.

The tanned boy´s expression didn´t change even as he stood up and showed the shallow cut inflicted on his forearm.

All of the gangbangers where shocked at the calmness present on the face of the boy, even as a few droplets of blood started to run down his arm.

"Got it out of your system because of what I did to your hand? Moving on..."- the tanned kid then took a small package of bandages from his bag and tossed it at the feet of the kneeling gangbanger in front of him.

"I´d take care of that, but I don´t think you would let me.. So, now.."- Abruptly turning to another gangbanger, whom was blocking his way, he rushed at him.

Reflexively, the neo-Nazi raised both of his arms in an attempt to defend himself; only to find that his arms were used to pole-vault the entire body of the strange *brown* above his in a sudden acrobatic display, briefly throwing off the gangbanger´s balance.

Falling on the paved floor of the corridor, he straightened out before looking over his shoulder at the gaping and yelling gangbangers who had never seen such a feat before –"From now on you may find me indoors if you wish to continue.. just open your mind and hold no expectations".

"Yeah, well! You had better open your asshole! Because –"- tuning out the screams and insults thrown his way, he continued towards the buildings of the school; all the while noticing how a good number of bystanders who had been watching were now trying to keep their distance from him.

_'Once more I give myself away.. I wonder what these people would have done in my place; those tattooed guys pulled weapons like it was nothing after all.. Damn vicious'_- there were only a few people on the halls at such an early hour; and a quick trip to the bathroom allowed him to cleanse himself before going to look for the faculty office.

The wound on his arm had healed already, a very faint and thin gray scar on place.

* * *

A flying pink elephant.

Looking behind the bus stop near the school, she found that someone had drawn a pink elephant with little white wings and colored it with spray paint with remarkable style and attention to detail.

Reading the message written below, it read: _Things are about to get weird._

_'The hell?… Ok, this is cryptic and just a bit disturbing. Whoever did this must be somewhat fucked up in the head'- _Taylor truly never expected to have such a peculiar morning today. Just before arriving at Winslow and finding this drawing, she had seen someone, who has started being called "a new urban ninja", whatever that means, running and doing impressive and crazy jumps on the way to school from her position seated inside a bus and staring out of the window.

Looking away, she retook the way to the school and to her first class after the winter holydays.

Hurrying up towards the classroom, she made it in time to the history class and checked her seat before taking it; wary for the pranks of the terrible trio who had been making her entire high school life miserable until a couple of weeks before the past vacation.

Taylor felt a bit fortunate that she only had this class with the more childish and *cutesy* of the trio of bullies: a girl named Madison Clements.

_'There´s been some time since they made their last *prank*. It´s clear they´re preparing something'- _she saw Madison give her a smirk, but nothing more.

_'Fuck! I just know they do have something planned'- _she honestly didn´t know how to deal with the stress of the wait for the shoe to drop, and this coupled with the monotone voice of the teacher certainly didn´t help her at paying attention to the class.

Two periods pass by, and there´s still nothing but cruel glances and smirks from the trio of girls who had been escalating their bullying from snide comments and remarks to attacks against her person and belongings, and anything else they felt they could get away with. Considering that the father of one of the bullies, her former best friend, was a lawyer; there was so much leeway she felt they could potentially get, that frustration had given way to a kind of resignation and a small expectation of simply enduring the rest of high school or outlasting the interest of her tormentors.

At lunch-time, nobody made the effort to find her eating at one of her hiding spots at the stairs leading to the door to the rooftop.

_'Could it be possible that i´m overthinking and they finally got bored with me? '- _the girl made a mental snort at that, not really believing the voice of the faint glimmer of hope.

* * *

The gnarled tree stood on the center of the park under a breathtaking and starry night sky. The two loosely entwined branches making up the trunk now containing a jade-green flaming orb.

Resting on a small patch of tall green grass, the lanky girl with the brown irises groggily looked up at the heavens while her head rested on the lap of someone she didn´t know.

_'I just don´t understand. Why Emma betrayed me? She must have told Sophia to push me inside the locker just now. Did she and the others try to kill me? Am I dead? Will someone tell Dad? Is this Heaven? '- _Her head felt like it was stuffed with cotton, and she could barely even make sense of her own thoughts; which were interrupted by a humming sound directly from behind and above her, a familiar wordless song comforting her.

"Are you God?"- She questions out loud without finding it in herself to care about moving her head or looking at the singer.

An ethereal and delicate looking hand that looked as if made of softly-glowing ivory reached out and placed a white tulip in her hand –**_"No, I am not"._** A pause as the unnatural hand was placed atop her head to lightly caress her hair –**_"We met while in your last dream. Now like then, you hear my *Voice* and your mind interprets everything as it can"._**

Taylor just hummed a little, still feeling pretty out of it, and raised her finger to draw constellations in the sky with imaginary lines; except said lines truly appeared in the sky! –"This is not real, these are just hallucinations. Am I going insane?".

The touch of Shion was abnormally faint and light –**_"This is reality which occurs within your mind. And you seem discouraged. Will you ask me to take your life away? Or will you rise and fight?"._**

"Why do you ask such a thing?"- She answered after a brief moment.

**_"*Child of those whom hold you dear in their hearts*, something outside of my own comprehension is affecting you right now. I am safeguarding you from the pain coming from processing thousands of senses. That and alerting the nearest one of my descendants is all I can do from the vast distance I´m from you.. Child, right now you are dying"- _**Although it had not seemed possible the touch quickly grew fainter until it vanished into small flickers of light; the apparition supporting her having seemingly been absorbed by the flames inside the tree.

Like someone had dumped a bucket of cold water on her, she came out of her daze and practically jumped to her feet –"W.. What!? that doesn´t make sense! I don´t have a thousand senses. JUST WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!?".

The girl embraces herself in fear as the bits of information about this *Shion* started to paint a picture she could hardly believe; and so she wildly looks around before choosing to face the old tree –"And you.. Whatever you are, why me? Why do you reached out to me? What is the meaning of *that* inside of my mind?".

There´s a short silence where part of her fears she won´t get any answers, and so she tries to calm down; maybe then she could manage to understand.

**_"I have deduced why my *Voice* could reach you. Simply put, I have been *screaming* all this time for my two children there to *hear* me. As you slept within a radius around one of them; you could *catch* some of that, and didn´t reject me in fear like plenty of others before yourself, as their minds interpreted me in different ways. The tree represents my frail and only way to *contact* you, and the flower symbolizes your willingness to allow such a direct thing"- _**Taylor wasn´t all that sure, but she sounded pleased.

The voice then became very somber –**_"And about what is happening to you.. There´s something *strange* on your brain which did things at the same time you fell into despair and one of your memories was locked up. You also gained the power to perceive what thousands of *living ones* around you do. It´s killing you and I can´t stop it. I don't *understand* but it feels *Evil* to me"._**

At first the girl just stared blankly at the tree, still boggled at the sheer and seemingly randomness of it all; but then she becomes truly transfixed as she grasps at what she can clearly understand, this could only mean she now had a power. She was a cape/parahuman now. A dream come true.

She could start to feel vague sensations of her body violently jerking and of smashing herself against the metal walls. All of it was too much to take in, but she just knew, in a distant sort of way, that she was now convulsing. Just her usual luck.

This was really killing her (and also possibly ruining her brain cells) when she had never heard of a cape being killed by their own powers.

It was terrible. It was unbelievable. It was horrible. It was wonderful.

**_"It seems my hold of your senses was only enough to let you take a breath. Now, I ask of you again. Will you painlessly *move on*? Or will you *fight*?"- _**All around her everything had started to become dim and almost washed-out. A headache starting to afflict her.

Images of her Dad´s worried expression, of the trio of her bullies, and of the city flashed in an instant through her thoughts.

Nobody looking could have told in that moment if her eyes were filled with despair or with resolve.

One of Taylor´s feet raised and then fell a little ahead of the other, and so it was again and again until she stood before the unnatural tree and her hands neared the ball of fire. It was just warm and strangely inviting instead of scorching.

"There´s so much I don´t understand. I am grateful to you for seemingly giving me respite. Thank you"- The pain only intensified as her surroundings gradually started to disappear.

"But I just don´t get _what _you are, and I can´t think of any proof at all for you to give me that would tell me for sure you didn´t have any part behind of this". Was it truly a coincidence that it/she appeared on a dream the same day this happened?

"I don´t want to hear you anymore, but thank you for everything. _Thank you_"- She hiccupped as tears started to flow, afraid of what she was going to do.

**_"You´ll hear me through my *loved* children. Take what you will of my *taint*, even if it´s unknown to you. I won´t stop you. However I will tell you that the memory is about a pair of immense beings making their way through the universe as they look for *worlds*, shucking away fragments of themselves. Some fell on the bay where you live"._**

Taylor nodded at that, deciding to think more on it if only she lived through this.

She would try to take anything that could possibly save her. She would figure out a way to fight throughout. She needed to.

For now, she only wanted to live.

With a yell, the girl plunges her arms into the depths of emerald fire; before the entire clearing exploded with a flare of blinding white.

A small white tulip forsaked on the ground burned away.

* * *

Different loud voices were almost drowned out by the unending scream coming from the tormented girl.

Light streamed down onto her face, silhouetting someone above her.

A demon with eyes glowing with a soft red-orange light. Something was off about it, uncanny. *It* was a monster who had opened the door of her locker.

_'Was the glow my imagination? Now they are just yellow, like a lion´s.. or a crocodile´s'._

He reached a hand out to her.

* * *

A/N: Still too early to tell where I am going with this? It becomes clearer on the next chapter, so please stay tuned. For now suffice to say that one of the main inspirations for this fanfiction came from the philosophical issues presented on the Ender´s Game series by Orson S. Card. Hope you are enjoying the story so far, until the next chapter.


	3. Chapter 3

**Whispers of the Outer**

* * *

**Disclaimer:** I don´t own the characters/setting/ideas from the web serial Worm by Wildbow; though there are a few OC in this fic, all of which are of my own creation.

Here you go; as always, any comments or opinions would be appreciated!

- " Speaking aloud and normally"-

- _Memories / dreaming / reading written or typed text _-

- ' _Thoughts _'-

- " _**Deep and incorporeal voice**_ "-

* * *

**Chapter 3: Personal Questions**

(Taking notes – Everyone has their reasons – Justifying alien gift economy ˃

* * *

January 07, 2011

_From: Prospective Ward._

_To: Director Emily Piggot of the Parahuman Response Team of Brockton Bay._

_I can only hope you were able to get this message. If you are not the Director, then please delete this message without reading further. Thank you. _

_Please don´t answer back to this cellphone number, as it´s borrowed and I don´t own any contact devices. This is just a notification in order to ease the setting up of a future meeting. Looking forward to it, I have heard nice things about you._

_I´ve been addressed by a few names, but I would prefer if you called me Wendy. I am a wannabe Ward with a complex situation, currently on my way towards Brockton Bay and expecting to arrive in a couple of days. If it would be okay I would like to give some personal information in advance and also alert you of a few things i´ve noticed on my way to your city, where I intend to camp at the beach after arriving._

_About me: *Here*, I started my travel from México carrying only a little money with me. I don´t have a birth certificate, proper ID, Social Security number.. my situation is comparable to that of a homeless orphan. I was told by a truck driver you´d want to know about my capabilities first of all; those are best not detailed here, but in broad terms I have already designed pretty handy ways to wield an inner form of energy adding to the combo of other skills which I am constantly developing. I´m sorry for not being able to rate myself like the PRT would do it, but I really don´t understand that classification :c._

_Some news from my journey: There is an exchange of funny smelling drugs between México and Texas, farmers complain about the effectiveness of parahuman´s protection, plenty of potholes on the roads due to parahuman fights throughout the Southwest, forays of violent people covered with white sheets towards your city, and the dangerous parahuman known as Corsair also is on his way (I plan to intercept him before he reaches your city). _

_Best regards to you from Wendy._

_Signature: The bounds breached by you and me._

_._

The director of the PRT from Brockton Bay was certainly not amused as she finished reading the message someone had sent to her official contact number.

_'I was lucky to have checked and recovered this supposed spam mail in time before it was deleted'_- She was slightly irked because this wasn´t actually following the proper procedures in place for contacting her. However, from reading the short note, she also noticed that this 'Wendy' was not really one for protocols. Suspecting that this was simply because of not knowing them she decided to disregard this for now.

After quickly skimming through the text again Piggot couldn´t help but feel exasperated at the last paragraph –'_It´s always the same with these reckless kids who get powers. This girl intends to rush into a mess way over her head, and apparently without any kind of support_'_._

A quick search of the files on her computer confirmed many of the reported problems. And she *tsked* with a hard expression on her face when she looked at Corsair´s files.

.

_Parahuman File # 00096448-06. Archive list C._

_Cape Identity: Corsair_

_Civilian Name: [redacted]_

_Gender: Male_

_Age: 36_

_Costume: Worn large dark blue overcoat with ragged clothes underneath and pants. Also wears a black balaclava and a pirate´s hat. Warning: often seen carrying small firearms and a tinker-tech cutlass not of his design._

_Affiliation: Villain. Threat level: C._

_Classification: Tinker 3, Brute 1, Mover 3 (see profile description)_

_Originally from a small coastal town in Florida, he migrated towards the coastal Hub city of Lewes in Delaware. There, he became a prominent mercenary frequently working for the largest operating and prevailing gang in the city: Black Sails._

_By the time of his capture and arrest on February 1__st__ of 2010 he had been found guilty of numerous charges, amongst them: smuggling of all sorts of illegal items (including drugs and weaponry) into the state, several accounts of theft and the destruction of a private property._

_After he was broken out of prison during the Slaughterhouse 9´s visit which occurred three months afterwards, it was discovered that he had been supplying a number of gangs in the North-East with vehicles (armed motorboats and the like); and also it became possible to connect this parahuman with more than a dozen of murders throughout the state (see case files # 003852-06 through 003867-06)._

_The subject has a Tinker specialty of building highly-advanced and often armed nautical vehicles such as motorboats and larger classes of ships, which can be maintained by normal specialists for the most part. This parahuman is also able to perform remarkable feats of agility and strength when compared against base-line humans, but falling short of the capabilities exhibited by higher ranked Brutes and Movers _

_Additionally, it can be pointed out that there had been multiple sightings of him as of late on the state of Nueva Jersey; which would make him one of the very few failed recruits from the SH9 which had been left alive afterwards to date_

_It´s strongly advised for the public to try to avoid this violent parahuman if at all possible, and in case of encountering him or finding pertinent information that may help on his capture to immediately contact your local PRT offices or Protectorate Headquarter._

* * *

The lanky figure of my father left the plain hospital room with a straight-back and fierce determination, leaving me alone with my thoughts even as I continued to contemplate his retreating back from my fly-self standing on six legs upon the door´s handle. I squashed the urge to rub two of my rear legs.

Well, that was what I could figure out from its composite blurry sight. Fuck, it was really giving me a headache.

The last act of the bullying campaign of the 'terrible trio' had been impossible to hide from my Dad. With what he had gathered from my explanation while sobbing on his shoulder, he now had a better idea of how truly bad it had got for me at the school.

I blinked and returned my focus to my human-self, looking down at the blanket I was tightly gripping with my hands -_'All of that effort so he didn´t worry so much. Useless_'

I took a deep breath and relaxed my hands; thanks to the sounds I could hear from the corridor I could tell that there were people just outside my room. Some of them were probably going to enter.

'_If dad actually learns about the full extent of the bullying and how long it had been going on.. he´s going to lose it, and the worst is that it won´t end up mattering at all_'

Really, the only silver-lining to all of this seemed to be my newly-gained powers; and speaking of which..

Even though I had been getting better, I still couldn´t say I had completely figured them out.

With the simplest of shifts in my focus, I could control and sense through any bug within a radius around me. I was really glad to have learned how to block their senses and I just knew where they were without having to look for them, which also is really convenient.

At the beginning I had found this quite lame, but I had found out something amazing while attempting to control more than a single bug at once

It had been so painful to even try that I had to stop, and after sobbing and rallying to myself against the unfairness of the world for giving me such a pathetic power I had decided to try and focus on the tree from the bizarre experiences from that day, persisting until I felt like I had become it.

And just like that, inside the same radius from before, I could actually control all the bugs inside of it at once and also envision a sort of *slideshow* showing me the outlines of people and animals relatively near the tree/myself in fast-forward. However, there was also just one person outside of my range I could always detect this way; he had what felt like a *thread* connecting to me. I thought that I could reattach this *thread* to another animal or person if I just *aimed* it at them, but still hadn´t tried it.

Thinking back on it, it was possible that I had accidentally entangled this person when I gained my powers or at the hospital and that was the reason I could still kind of locate him/her even now, when he or she was walking towards here.

A nurse entered my room then –"Hello Taylor. I am glad to see that you are doing better now. How are you feeling today? Did you already have your breakfast?"

"I am fine, Thank you. And yes, I already ate"- I answered as the nurse retrieved the platter I passed to her, with which they had served my breakfast earlier in the morning.

"Good. By the way, do you feel up for talking? A boy came to visit you. Although it seems like he forgot to bring flowers"- The nurse winked at me.

Slightly flustered, I just lowered my head and gave her a nod.

"Got it"- She exited the room, and stopped at the doorway when she was addressed by someone I couldn´t see.

"Is it okay for me to speak with her?"- I didn´t recognize that voice. It sounded deep and accented in a way I had never heard before.

"Sure, but don´t agitate her. Even though she had been recovering well during the observation here, we don´t want any set-backs"

A somewhat familiar boy, only slightly taller than me and seemingly around my age, entered the room. I thought he was the one I had seen doing crazy jumps on the way to school, but wasn´t completely sure.

He wore a gray t-shirt and jeans, together with worn running shoes. From his bare arms I could tell he was fit, and from the barely visible scars on them he probably had gotten into plenty of fights.

I blinked when suddenly his form was overlaid with the demon I remembered from the locker incident on my mind.

Quickly checking, I realized that my *thread* was connected to him. If only I knew what it meant.

What was actually making me nervous about the boy now looking at me with a neutral expression was the overall foreign and dangerous presence he gave off.

'_All right. I admit he´s kind of attractive, but I still don´t get why I feel on edge around him. Maybe it´s just because i don´t know why he´s here, and he kind of looks like some Latin gangbanger, like I had seen on the news some time ago_'

Before I could ask him who he was he started to speak –"I already had to tell the police, other *adults* and even your father a few days ago. You also deserve to know".

'_What?!_ '– "What are you talking about? Who are you?"

He walked towards the wall opposite to my bed and rested his back against it with his arms crossed against his chest –"I told them about the events I witnessed, the ones surrounding your releasing of that disgusting locker. They knew I had pulled you out of there.. and apparently I screwed it up and ended up punished afterwards. That´s what usually happens when I meddle; but it was worth it if I was able to get you out of there in time".

I could only stare at him in shock, even as he continued –"As for my name.. it´s okay if you call me either John or Yagan. Nice to *meet* you Taylor"

He gave me a brief reserved smile, and the unnatural edge to his presence faded almost completely. Although, now I was curious about the accent with which he seemed to emphasize certain words: like *adult* and *meet*.

Also, thinking about what he had said I couldn´t help but to feel both thankful and embarrassed because he had seen me in such a state when he had gotten me out of that damned trap made by the three despicable little bitches that..

"Nice to meet you too"- I focused on trying to clear my head. "What´s – What´s with the two names?"

"I am registered as John Venture on paper and computer. Yagan is part of my actual birth name; but the *adults* couldn´t verify that since I am not from around here"

I supposed he came from a really peculiar place then. What kind of name was Yagan anyways?

"Um.. Where are you from?"

Yagan´s expression turned distant and even enigmatic –"From a very faraway place.. I think it would be better if I gave you now the same cliff notes I told your father and the others". I realized that he didn´t want to talk about his origins, but couldn´t imagine why.

He waited for me to nod at him before he continued –"After the classes for the day ended I decided to expend a couple of hours exploring the school and doing other such things. Afterwards, I went with the flow of the students who were getting out of extra-curricular activities until I noticed a few people gathering near a locker. Some of the girls were laughing and there was a stench in the air, and so I went to open it. Two of the girls attempted to stop me, I shoved them aside and managed to pry open the door. I found you and picked you up to take you to the school´s nurse. I insulted and offended the whole lot of people around us. Some girl tried to stop me again, but I ignored the hits and carried you until we reached the nurse´s office. Some girls came by to yell at me when I went outside, and even called a teacher to take me to the principal. I ended up suspended for three days for _assault_, being _disruptive_ and other stuff like that. At some point they remembered what was important and mentioned you. And after I came back on Thursday, I started being called *that freakish punk who hits girls* but it seemed like everybody forgot that you had been put into a place worse than the barrels of some fast food services for almost two hours, and those girls still tried to stop me because that was supposedly your *place*".

I made a great effort to prevent any external change on my expression as he spoke, but I don´t think I was entirely successful because at the end I could only dejectedly stare down at my blanket as the strange boy went and sat near my feet.

That retelling certainly included details my Dad hadn´t gone much into when he spoke to me. Although he had focused on the school having taken over the costs of my hospital stay and providing a substantial extra. Clearly in order to hush things up.

It was probably because some of those things weren´t directly related to me, but still..

'_The amount of holes in that tale is ridiculous. Nobody would normally do all of that. And also it is a little disturbing how biase he seems to be about certain things_- _wait! How did he know how long I was in there?_ '

"You were purposely vague when you told this to my dad and the police. Also, how did you know how long I was trapped? Just how- why did you come for me? Why did you care?"- I discretely wiped my eyes and awaited his answer.

A brief moment of silence passed, and when I dared to raise my head to look at him he was smirking at me while his now more noticeable golden irises were locked onto mine.

'_He must have contact lenses_'- I attempted to convince myself. It wasn´t working.

"My willingness to open that door was simply greater than that of those girls to keep me away. They could have stopped me otherwise. I deduced the amount of time you were in there from some of the comments from them"- Yagan briefly cocked his head slightly to the side.

"Not only are you right, but you also ask me what is arguably the most important question. I didn´t go into much detail with the *adults* because I couldn´t be sure how appropriate would have been to share my own posterior discoveries and conclusions with them without speaking to you first"

"Again, why did you care?"- I didn´t want to sound ungrateful but I really needed to know. And so I glared at him.

He looked briefly towards the window to my side and then solemnly answered –"Even though I can´t give you any reassurance, would you still like to hear?.. Well, then. I did it because that wasn´t actually your *place* according to even your own people here. And thanks to the *alert* I received I knew I had to act quickly in order to prevent your death. You have the same rights to *meet* and fight than me. Others contradict this? But nobody really wants or needs such a future world when there are actually ways- In short I mean that I just acted because of my own *truth* and beliefs. There is also the small hope that you would tolerate and overcome my *presence* and that I would finally understand some things, however that´s always true for everyone regardless"

_'Is this guy for real?!_ '- I was somewhat incredulous but also taken aback by the way he was talking. He clearly didn´t have that well of a grasp on the English language. I had been tempted to correct him a few times already; maybe it came from what I remembered of the lectures from my mother.

He had been getting more worked up towards the middle of his speech, but it was hard for me to make sense of this. I certainly didn´t think that anybody, with the exception of true psychos, would want to live in a world where a person´s life would be easily disregarded. But he was projecting something about my circumstances into such a thing? That was a gross exaggeration. There would have been consequences if I had died in there..

It was only questions after questions that kept popping up on my mind. And I could tell that Yagan also had plenty of his own questions and doubts.

The two of us sat in awkward silence for a short while, as I ruminated on what he had told me.

Until a foreboding weight settled on my mind when something clicked.

"Um. I don´t actually remember some things from when I was in there, but.. when you said something about an alert what did you mean?"- I looked at him while dearly expecting that he would say that someone had noticed something wrong and told him.

He just stared blankly at me, making me feel uncomfortable.

"You already know the answer to that. And speaking about that subject.. Things would have probably happened differently if someone from the crowd had interfered on your behalf instead. Could you please tell me on your own opinion the reason why they didn´t do anything? This has been nagging at me. Nothing from my own conclusions explains why they wouldn´t have intervened"- Yagan´s expression turned uncharacteristically pleading.

_'So he is related to that Shion. It is so hard to believe. All of that was such nonsense'_

Resigned, I just sighed and slightly shook my head. During all these months of bullying it had always been the same thing –"I can´t be totally sure but I think that they didn´t want to be targeted by Emma, Madison and Sophia with their lackeys".

Yagan´s expression hardened for a moment before returning to normal and turning to look outside the window for a few minutes.

"Speaking like this is truly inefficient, don't you think Taylor?"- I came back from the reverie I had fallen into.

I just looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

He turned to look at me again –"We still haven´t discussed my conclusions from what I gathered in the following days, nor which of those I am supposed to tell to your father; even though we have been talking for a while already. He is waiting for more information coming from either of us. So I suppose I should apologize for agreeing and involving myself in such a way but I think the *adults* managed to manipulate me while conversing. I´d rather not think about that as it´s still somewhat pissing me off, even if I would have probably agreed if actually asked"

It was true that I was annoyed at him for involving himself so much and possibly making bigger that entire mess.. But it was greatly outweighed by the gratitude I felt for him getting me out of there and possibly saving my life?. Damn, I had been having nightmares since; and I just knew they weren´t going to stop showing up for a while.

"It is okay. I understand"- it felt like only fair.

Taking a deep breath, I mumbled to him –"Thank you for getting me out of there"

The outlandish boy just nodded at me before continuing –"I don´t want to bother you too much and I suppose we can keep talking at school if you want. I know you are still on a degree of denial about what happened. So if I haven´t scared you.."

Looking at his face I couldn´t help but ponder on it.

Was I afraid of him? No. Maybe that nonsense about Shion and that tree had affected me somehow, taken away something.

I didn´t have a clue what the fuck was with him. Why didn´t I feel any fear towards Yagan. Just a little more anxiety than normal, if that.

"Um.. No, surprisingly you don´t frighten me. Are you some sort of parahuman?"- I blurted out the question without thinking on it. _'Oh crap! '._

He just lowered his face, the bangs of his wild hair obscuring his eyes, and shook his head once.

"…I am getting this vibe from you that you haven´t talked with anyone this much in a long time"

The boy looked up at her, a thoughtful expression on his face that morphed into a slight smile –"Actually, never since arriving *here* if my memory isn´t failing me.. Thank you for your patience".

"And for not deceiving me"- I almost didn´t catch the mumbled sentence, and he got up from the border of the bed

I just gave him a small shy smile in answer and waved him off; before another question came up.

"Aren´t you- Are you sure you want to see me at school, where the trio and their followers would target you as well?"

He lightly snorted before answering –"I never cared about that sort of attempt to tell me to whom I may or may not talk to. Sooner or later I was bound to get a reputation like the one I currently have. It makes no difference if some of them have more reasons to annoy me now. My father once told me that *threats*, such as what they would make, are a test of will".

I had to acknowledge that I had never thought about it like that.

"Um.. and what if you did care? If you valued something so much that you couldn´t afford to lose it?"

"Then, I think either I´d have to figure out a way to protect it with or without help, or I´d simply be defeated in such a conflict and would have to use what was learned to try to recover it.. This is quite a deep subject, and I think that it would be best if we continued it tomorrow if you want"- the boy easily answered with a hint of eagerness to his voice.

"Right"- _'I feel that he´s really convinced about what he says. It´s also odd how much he seems to like talking about stuff like this'._

The tanned teen got up and addressed me after a moment of thought.-"Before I leave, there´s something I´d like for you to think about. A deal, as things seems to go around here. You could give me your answer later".

I perked up again and listened –"Sure. What is it about?"

"I need tutoring in some topics we are and will be learning at school. We are both Sophomore students but I bet I am going to struggle more than you, especially at Math. I also want to learn more about the laws of this state, stuff which I couldn´t figure out from a visit to the public library"- Yagan explained.

"Since I don´t have much money, you could answer my doubts as best as you can in exchange of.. I am not sure what would be appropriate; something along the lines of helping you with those three girls, maybe?"- he continued; although the way he spoke about it gave me the idea that he was willing to do so regardless.

"Um.."- I wasn´t all that comfortable with his readiness to keep going and intruding into that mess; not to mention that I was unsure of being able to help him adequately in return since my grades tended to be average. I already was wary of how everything was going to be at school from now on.

"It might be something concrete you had already thought of but couldn´t do because you would have needed help. Ok, before I tell you what occurred to me please keep in mind that I am foreign; and so if any unbecoming implication ever comes up, could you please try to disregard it and only pick whatever would be useful to you?"

"..Ok. I will hear you out and decide what would be valid. But it will be my call on what would be done"- I nodded slowly, guessing it was something I could do.

He nodded –"Alright, the tutoring in exchange of some of the following: using my subtlest skills to covertly sabotage their attacks to you when I am able to and for a set duration, building a rep for myself and attracting as much of their ire as I can or otherwise divert their focus from you, enacting an scenario where you fight me and the trio is convinced of your change and of your *strength*, pretending to be your boyfriend for a while and then "break up" with a fight where you demonstrate the same things, making sure some teacher often "happens to" catch them in the act, and being present as a witness for as many of their attempts as I can so you can convince the principal".

I blushed a little and stared at him with wide eyes -_'Did he just suggest that?! '._

Yagan had kind of confirmed my impression about him with the amount of thought he seemed to have already done, and he continued speaking after a brief moment –"Look, I know how many of these options sound; but they really wouldn´t be as taxing for me as they look. Just relax and think it over, ok? There´s time and you never know when you might receive an epiphany and figure out something even better".

How much time did he think the bullying had been going on?! I had spent so long trying everything I could and looking for solutions, and he just comes and says this to me?

I couldn´t hold back the bitterness in my voice –"That´s easy for you to say. How long do you think this had been going on?".

Yagan just held his palms up for an instant before shaking his head once –"I don´t know how long has it been. And as for "easy for me".. Is it, truly? I am aware that I have you at an unfair disadvantage".

"I wouldn´t have much of an issue in correcting that but I am not going to describe to you in detail the bitter and acidic taste of some kinds of garbage or how it feels to have been manipulated to become an unpaid "enforcer" for a bunch of assholes, at this time"- He looked more tired than angry when he said this.

'_Damn, with his build that is hard to believe. Though I´ll still give him the benefit of doubt'_

"Oh, ok"- I was already starting to feel tired myself. "I´ll need to think really hard on your suggestions, so.. See you tomorrow?"

The boy turned around and gave me a wave of his hand over his shoulder as he walked and exited the room –"Bye, *see you around*".

* * *

_The Path has been updated. One thousand five hundred seventy steps eliminated._

* * *

**A/N: **And the setup for plenty of crazy awesomeness is ready. Incoming next: a chapter filled with the action from the first extended battle of this fic. Enjoy!


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